Soda is often blamed for many ills — weight gain, diabetes and heart disease. The argument between the beverage industry and the scientists is that there is no absolute proof — only a correlation — linking sugary drinks and these health problems. And then there's the question of what role diet soda plays in all of this. Why is it that people who drink diet soda also struggle with obesity, metabolic syndrome and other issues?

While those arguments and questions are sorted out, I'd like to offer a different question.

First, consider that a regular sugar-sweetened soft drink has 10 or more teaspoons of sugar. Artificial sweeteners are 100s to 1,000s of times sweeter than table sugar. That is a lot of sweetness. Compare that to an apple or orange. They're sweet but probably don't hit the "wow" level on your sweetness scale. Maybe you're thinking, "But I like a lot of sweetness."

Here is my question: Have your taste buds become so accustomed to super-sweet drinks that the natural sweetness in foods, such as fruits, pales in comparison? Want to find out?

I invite you to take this challenge: Ditch the added sugar and artificial sweeteners in your diet for two weeks. Think of it as a palate cleanse. For the next two weeks, choose foods that contain little or no added sugar or artificial sweetener. Here are the details:

Choose foods that have 5 grams of sugar or less a serving. You can find this information on the Nutrition Facts label.

Also limit natural sweeteners, such as agave, honey and molasses, to 5 grams or less a serving.

Avoid artificial sweeteners as much as possible.

Add fruits — fresh, frozen or dried — to foods to add flavor and nutrition. Fruits, vegetables and milk have natural sugars. For example, an 8-ounce container of yogurt has 12 grams of natural sugar (lactose). That's OK. To figure out how much added sugar a yogurt has, subtract 12 grams from the total grams of sugar listed on the Nutrition Facts label. What is left is the amount of added sugar.

After you're completed the challenge, please share your experiences. How did foods and beverages taste throughout the two weeks and after? Were you surprised to see what foods or beverages contained added sugars or artificial sweeteners? Surprised to see the amount of sugar that's added to foods and beverages? Any other interesting discoveries?

Looking for guidance...we just concluded Mark Hyman's 10-day detox. My husband began complaining that "regular" foods do not taste the same--they all taste like "an old salad"--tongue is bitter around the edges. No amount of seasoning, herbs, etc. seems to help.
Suggestions?
Carol Smith
csmithhomeaddress@att.net

Carol Smith

September 30, 2014 2:59 p.m.

Is this still ongoing? I have done the Fed Up 10-day Sugar challenge twice this summer and fall and amazingly just that little trace of a commitment kept me doing it! Plus now that I have read the studies on one's microbiome and artificial sweeteners, on which I am very dependent, I am , or have, stopped them too! (I always knew they were adding to my addictive relationship to having everything taste basically like "dessert".) I want to begin this 2-week challenge today. In only a few days you begin to taste other flavors and the panic recedes.

elizabeth

August 19, 2014 7:59 p.m.

Is the challenge still going on??? Is data still needed????

Linda

May 12, 2014 5:52 p.m.

I have oral lichen planus. Only diet decaff cola soothes it. So does ice cream, etc. I eat yogurt and stay away from spicy foods. Many condiments give me blisters all over the inside of my mouth. I eat fish, pork and lots of vegetables. I barely use any seasonings as they cause blisters also. I eat one piece of chocolate before 7p.m. I wake up in the middle of the night and sip cola. I have tried just doing ice cold water, but it does not soothe. Cola is a life-saver for me.

Barbara Lindley

May 12, 2014 1:37 p.m.

I never use sugar in anything if I can avoid it. I drink tons of UNSWEETENED tea all day, some iced, some hot with milk. BUT - the sugar lobby has fixed it so that food mfrs. put sugar in just about everything. Try to find sugarless bread, for openers. I have to go to Costco to get decent, sugarless bread.
Another fact I just learned: if you avoided all sugar you would NEVER get a tooth cavity!
Thing is to be vigilant and read the labels on everything you buy. And write Congress: tell it to wean itself away from the sugar lobbyists!

rudy dankwort

May 12, 2014 1:27 p.m.

I took the sugar challenged at the first of the year. I have lost 14 lbs and feel great! A orange or a pear is a real sweet treat now and I look forward to starting the day with granola, fruit and yogurt.

NP Cone

October 25, 2013 12:57 p.m.

I have gone without sugar of any kind 3 months at a time and I have never felt better in my life. unfortunantly, after 3 months I start to look anorexic, I never thought of getting my sugar allowance ( to hold some weight) by eating lots of fruit, I will try this.

Leslie

October 2, 2013 5:34 p.m.

What is a good ileostomy diet? I do not eat meat or poultry, and I am having constipation problems lately.

Patty

August 29, 2013 7:10 p.m.

This article is about a two-week sugar diet. To successfully complete this diet the person must choose foods with 5 grams or less of sugar. Also they have to limit natural and artificial sweeteners. They also need to add fruit to foods to add flavor.

loren

July 8, 2013 4:29 p.m.

Dear Lynn,
Extra calories, from any source, will hinder weight loss. For the purposes of this challenge and as outlined in the Mayo Clinic Diet book, alcoholic beverages are categorized as sweets. The idea is to recognize that they can provide a significant amount of calories just as any other sweet treat might (and much less in terms of vitamins and minerals).

Katherine, your blog host

July 2, 2013 7:15 p.m.

So, I'm reading anything I can find that might help me improve my health and lose weight, including the comments here. The one thing I have not yet found info on is alcohol sugars. Every diet I've ever researched has mentioned &quot;don't drink alcohol&quot; ever, at all, because the sugar is just bad. But there is no sugar listed anywhere for any beer, wine, etc. How does this figure in? And, no, I'm not a heavy drinker, but I do enjoy a beer or glass of wine in the evening after work, and am wondering if this might be why my extra lbs are so stubborn? I've tried to talk to my doctor about it, and he's incommunicado - all I get is None, ever. Just seems there should be a compromise somewhere, you know?

Lynn

May 23, 2013 11:46 a.m.

Dear Emily, you bring up a good question regarding juice. A small glass of 100% juice can be part of a healthy diet. Technically, since it is natural sugar, it would be allowed in this challenge. A word of caution in the calories you drink, we do not always register or even remember them when it comes to our daily tally. If you are watching calories in addition to sugar, consider plain water or water with fruit slices or a small amount of juice added to flavor it.

Katherine, your blog host

May 17, 2013 12:47 p.m.

Should we count the sugar in 100% fruit juice? Mine has 29g in an 8 oz glass.

Emily

April 20, 2013 3:20 p.m.

THANK YOU, JERRY! Your story is just the inspiration I needed!

Mary

April 18, 2013 2:09 p.m.

I think my sugar intake is fairly low, apart from my enjoyment of a modest glass of honey and lemon in the morning. I did manage to wean myself of sugar in coffee many years ago; it was my custom to add two teaspoonsful to a cup, and as I thought that was too much, I took to drinking it without any sugar at all. At first, it tasted foul. I gradually began to like it free of sugar, and now I can't stand it with; it's foul! So, it can be done.

jOHN

April 18, 2013 11:47 a.m.

Dear Graham,
Thanks for your question regarding artificial sweeteners. Artifical sweeteners have a very high level of sweetness in a small quantity. For this challenge, avoiding or limiting the artificial sweeteners is part of resetting our palate to detect and enjoy the natural sweetness is fruits and vegetables. You might be suprised by the number of foods and beverages that contain them. Again, this adds to the challenge. Look forward to hearing about your experience. Best wishes.

Katherine, your blog host

April 18, 2013 11:38 a.m.

Dear Dan,
Thanks for your question about milk sugars. The 13 grams you are reading on the label are from the milk sugar, lactose. They are natural and you do not need to count them. If you however choose a flavored milk, you'll need to do the math and subtract 13 grams. The same applies for yogurts (~ 12 grams of natural sugar per 8 ounces). Best wishes.

Katherine, your blog host

April 18, 2013 5:33 a.m.

Why should I avoid sweeteners??

Graham

April 17, 2013 9:00 p.m.

I do a sugar fast every year, starting after my birthday in January. My goal is a minimum of 30 days, and I have gone as long as 120 days with no sugar. I ALWAYS feel better, and fruits taste better to me during those fasts. I've been doing this for many years. The one thing that's the most surprising to me is that during the sugar fasts, I stop craving chocolate. Unfortunately, I seldom lose weight during my sugar fasts. I suppose that's from eating quite healthy during the rest of the year. I usually don't eat foods containing sugar except during the Christmas season. I've been a nutrition-minded label-reader since 1973, and began using only whole grains at that time. Eating healthy was a matter of life and death then, and it has become standard practice for me ever since.

Ora

April 17, 2013 4:07 p.m.

I have trained myself to look at a slice of chocolate cake, or other temptation, and see a conical pile of granulated sugar, a conical pile of white flour, a cube of butter, a chunk of chocolate, et al. That makes it easier to answer the question that I then ask myself: Is there anything there that my body needs?

Dave

April 17, 2013 2:06 p.m.

During Lent, I did exactly what you suggested and in 40 days I lost 10 pounds. And I feel so much better about the foods I eat. I had never realized how much sugar food has and now I'm looking at sodium intake as well.

Carmen

April 17, 2013 1:50 p.m.

Gave up sugar and other sweeteners, still eat my fruit, have been told that the natural sugars in fresh fruit are more easily converted into energy rather than fat. Prior to this I had lost appx 30 Lbs by walking 3 to 5 miles per day. Felt great but still had the belly bulge. After doing a veggie de-tox and giving up refined sweeteners I've dropped from 38 waist back to 34 in about a month. The added bonus is that all foods taste better. Like Barbara I could eat a box of donuts and chase it with a key lime cheesecake but I choose not to.

Jerry

April 17, 2013 12:40 p.m.

I gave up sweetened soda years ago and carbonate tap water at home or buy club soda or selzter. I still add a level teaspoon of turbinado sugar to my tea but otherwise don't add sugar to food. I find the sweetness in red bell peppers makes them as satisfactory a desssert as apples or other fruit. one astonishing result of reducing sugar was I discovered the sweetness of the ordinary potato; I stopped using salt and pepper on potatoes because it masked the sweetness.

Steve

April 17, 2013 12:37 p.m.

The labels I've read on milk cartons show 13g of sugar per cup--whole milk, 2%, 1%, and skim milk.
Doesn't this count as sugar?
There is NO sugar in heavy cream.

Dan

April 17, 2013 12:02 p.m.

I started avoiding added sugars a long time ago and now I find that most food with added sugar is too sweet. For example, my brother in law adds sugar to his vegetables and I would like them better with no sugar. Also, I do not enjoy eating the boxed cornbread mix because it is too sweet for my taste but, still,if you gave me a Pepperidge Farm coconut cake, I could eat the whole thing. I wish I could change that, too.

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